OTTAWA — Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson was quick to shoot down NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s call to cut off critical mineral exports in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s looming tariffs.
“The NDP leader honestly doesn’t know what he’s talking about… in the context of finding a resolution to this challenge,” Wilkinson told reporters at a Thursday media call-in.
“I bet he’s never been involved in any serious negotiation before,” said Wilkinson, speaking at the tail end of a two-day visit to Washington, D.C., where he touted the merits of the Canada-U.S. energy relationship directly to American lawmakers.
“We are not going to negotiate in public,” said Wilkinson. “And we are not going to tell the Americans exactly what we were going to do.”
Wilkinson called Singh’s public spitballing on retaliatory measures counterproductive.
“This needs to be thoughtful, and there needs to be a strategy. And to be honest with you, Mr. Singh is not helping the cause of Canada by saying things like that publicly.”
He nevertheless conceded that critical minerals are a possible bargaining chip for Canadian negotiators.
“There are a range of options, and certainly critical minerals may be part of that conversation… but we are not interested in this being an escalatory issue,” said Wilkinson.
Singh said on Monday that Canada should fight fire with fire by countering Trump’s bullying with restrictions on cross-border exports of cobalt and lithium, two elements that are critical for the production of batteries used to power things like cell phones and electric vehicles.
“There’s no quicker way to get Donald Trump to back away from tariffs than to shut off the taps on critical minerals, which the states need very clearly,” Singh told reporters in Ottawa.
Singh called on all political leaders to support his proposal.
The NDP leader subsequently put out a statement on Wednesday asking for a seat at the table in Canada-U.S. trade negotiations.
“(T)he leaders of all federal parties represented in Parliament… need to be brought together immediately to chart a united response to Donald Trump’s tariffs,” wrote Singh. He also called for the inclusion of labour unions, Indigenous leaders and business groups in the Team Canada trade effort.
“Bringing all these voices to the table… will help forge an all-hands-on-deck approach that this moment demands.”
National Post
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